This blog collects my postings and publications on IQ, personality and Genius. The Genius Famine, a book written from this blog, is available free at: http://geniusfamine.blogspot.co.uk or can be purchased at Amazon

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

On the structure and mechanism of teleology in evolution

On reflection, I think that teleology must be of the nature of
following a blueprint plus instructions - in other words, teleology
entails achieving what is already in existence conceptually.

And therefore teleology is not a
matter of following a particular direction towards some as-yet
unrealized condition. In other words, with teleology, the destination
must be foreknown - you have to know where you are going.

This
means that in a teleological, purposive concept of evolution on earth;
the perceptible evolutionary sequence must be conceptualized as a
process of incremental - step-by-step - development towards a situation
which already exists as a plan.

Indeed, this must be
the case if things are to be coordinated - the coordination of nature,
of reality, must be 'top-down' - so that things evolve to occupy
pre-ordained 'slots'.

(This is not to deny that other types of evolution are working against this plan - for example entropic change and natural selection.)

The unifying purpose - to make more Deities from Men

The
primary purpose of evolution is to make more Deities - the highest type
of consciousness, this is achieved by the deification of Men - so the
intermediate purpose is to make Men - which is done via raising
animal consciousness, which is done by raising plant consciousness,
which is the first obvious form of 'life' itself derived from the
primordial level of the simplest and minimal level of baseline life and
consciousness which is found in the mineral, physical world (a world
that is usually assumed to be non-living and non-conscious).

1. First half of evolution: Creating the plan

So,
the evolutionary history of life on earth comes in two halves - the
evolution of the plan then the realization of the plan; but the first
half is usually neglected.

The plan evolves into a
hierarchy from the simple unity of purpose at the top ('deity'), and
down through layers of higher 'governing entities' concerned with
advanced consciousness ('angels'), middle entities concerned with animal
and plant life ('nature spirits'), and mineral entities concerned with
the basic organization of matter in terms of what we would term physics
and chemistry - elementary particles, fundamental forces, elements,
molecules etc.

So - top-down, simplified, and
descending in a pyramidal fashion, with greater numbers of simpler and
more specialized governing entities at each lower level:

1. Deity
2. Angels
3. Animal then Plant Nature Spirits

4. Physical spirits

These
entities are all purposive, conscious and cognitive - that is, they are
capable of thought, analysis, modelling - but at very different levels.
The idea is that there are extremely large numbers of extremely simple
physical entities; and many-fold fewer numbers of (say) angels having
far greater levels of consciousness and cognitive ability.

The first half of evolution involves the development of these purposive entities from the top downwards - until before the physical realization of creation has begun, the above hierarhcy of entities is already in place.

So
this is the plan - containing both the 'blueprint' of the end result,
and the step-by-step 'instructions' of how to achieve it.

2. Second half of evolution: implementing the plan

The
assumption is that such a vast and complex plan cannot be implemented
in one step - but requires multiple incremental steps - because only so
much, some finite degree of organization, can be attained in a single
step.

Therefore, at each stage the process requires the
building-blocks to be ready - pre-prepared. So the first stage is to
make the most primary building blocks and elaborate them stepwise until
they are suitable to make first plant, then animal life of increasing
complexity and consciousness; sexual reproduction, animal society; then
Men - and then to raise the consciousness of Men towards Deity.

The history and sequence of evolution of and on earth is therefore the reverse direction from that of the governing entities:

4.
The basic stuff and forces of the universe - The universe, solar
system, earth; the physico-chemical 'mineral' structures of earth - done
by Physical Spirits
3. The origins of life, elaboration of life through plants and animals via specialization and coordination and sexual selection - done by Nature Spirits
2. Origins of Man - done by Angels
1. Deification of Man - done by God

The second half of evolution is - overall -
therefore a process akin to (but vastly more complex and long-lasting
than) the development of the fertilized egg into an organism; in the
sense that it is a growth and unfolding by multiple stages towards a
previously established and planned end-point.

And each and all of the major stages, as well as the integration of the whole plan, are guided by governing entities.

Conclusion:
To put the whole matter extremely simply: the structure of creation is
first established as a plan by the hierarchical structure of governing
entities which evolve from the top downwards getting simpler and simpler
as they descend; then secondly creation is organized by these governing
entities from the bottom upwards, from simplest to most complex, such
that the pattern of actual creation is mapped-onto the pattern of the
governing entities in the reverse direction from the formation of the
governing entities.

*

In a teleological (purposive) model of evolution I have inferred that
there must be governing entities that shape evolution in order to
overcome the destructive effects of entropy and short-termist and ultra-selfish natural selection, in order to enable long-term survival and reproduction to be pursued.

In
general, teleology seems to be required for the imposition of a
background level of cooperation and coordination between similar
entities and across the different levels of organization.

If
this is accepted, and some kind of general mechanism for teleology is
devised - such as the hierarchy of governing entities - then the
question arises as to how teleology is imposed?

There
seem to be two possibilities - purpose could be imposed from outside by
the operation of some kind of field, force or form; or purpose could be
built-in.

While I think it likely that external forms/
fields/ forms have a role - they strike me as radically too simple, too
lacking in dynamic complexity, to perform the necessary job in
biological entities - although perhaps they suffice for the mineral
world such as atoms, molecules, crystals etc.

My instinct
is that purpose is most likely to be built in, specifically that, as an
entity is formed, its purposive nature is built into the structure and organization
(by the action of its governing entity) such that there is a degree of
agency and self-regulation directed at the overall purpose.

For example, in multicellular organisms there may be the mechanisms of cell-suicide or apoptosis
- such that if a cell experiences a mutation that may endanger the
organism - perhaps by a neoplasm such as cancer - then the cell destroys
itself (for the good of the whole organism).

There is
considerable altruism built-in at the cellular level - white blood cells
(some of which closely resemble free living amoebae) will kill
themselves in the process of defending the organism against
microorganism invasion (these dead soldiers are found in pus): this
purpose is apparently built-into them.

Another example is reproductive self-suppression; which is found in some social animals. For instance, when a male orangutan
fails to become the alpha, he remains as a partly developed adolescent.
Now, in one sense he is biding his time and hoping for sneaky coercive
sex with a female - but in another sense he is preserving the cohesion
of the group by removing himself from competition.

Similar
behaviours are seen in primates in relation to submission - a defeated
male will submit and accept the dominant male - on the other side the
dominant male will refrain from killing the defeated opponent.

In
humans, there is considerable altruism and risk taking among young men
in defending their group. Of course, this behaviour - once established,
may be sustained by the advantage of protecting genetic relatives - but
the behaviour had to occur and be stable before such advantage could be
established; and it is consistent with observation that such motivations
are built-in.

The primary reliance upon built-in
teleology also makes it easy to understand the existence, indeed often
at high rates, or the opposite - of behaviours which are non-functional,
free-riding, parasitic. The teleology - including traits that are long-termist, altruistic,
cooperative and coordinated - are vulnerable to subsequent, later
events that disrupt or destroy these built-in mechanisms: such as damage
or mutations during the life of the entity - mutant mitochondria in a eukaryotic cell, cancer in a multicellular organism, the effects of mental illness in human society.

Therefore,
I think it most likely that governing entities work to impose teleology
at the point where entities are being formed - either originally and/
or when being reproduced. The teleological behaviours are part of the
design specification built into the entity.